I Can't Keep UP!

Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to participate as a leader in a Vacation Bible School program. Lots of fun and now we think about what actually happened. With the end of any activity we come to evaluation and reflection. This week is no exception. Each of us who were here, can already remember memorable moments when these children came together. They jumped in and did all kinds of things. All we have to do was ask. Ask them to dance, and they did. Ask them to sing, and they did. Ask them to sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, and they do. You know the really fun part? Watching the adults trying to stay with the kids. The children look to the adults and copy them, thanks parents.
On one of these mornings it was comical to listen to the children. Counting came up at one point and a young kindergarten child pipped up, “I can count to one hundred.” Then she started, one, two, three, four, five. Just when she was getting her rhythm going, a grade three student said, “I can count to a million.” Then they all jumped in leaving the youngest child wondering what just happened. “I can count to a billion.” “Well I can count to a gazillion.” And so it went for at least 37 seconds when they went on to the next competition.
Children are so much fun. As fatigue began to take the best of us, I smiled more and more at the knowledge that the children do not have to wait for us to catch up to them. Life to them is exciting and such an adventure that they never tire from learning more things.
This has to be the biggest part of learning something new. Unfortunately as adults we seldom experience it with children’s eyes. They see things for the first time and shout. We see something for the first time and get all cool like and ay, “Cool. Didn’t know that?” We bring our congregations to the most exciting story in the history of the world and make it “Cool and boring.” Sorry, I want to get excited about going to the church building. Sometimes I want to stand up and shout and dance and get really excited about God, Jesus and me. I want to open my bible every day and say, “Wow, that is amazing!!!”. Case in point, read 2Sam.5:6-7. Here is David, showing up to fight a battle with nothing extraordinary. Well, that is if you don’t think showing up with God is extraordinary. The other side laughs at them. David had toothpicks but his God had the cannons. That my friend is amazing. Go ahead and get your bible and read the whole story.
Do you know what? God can do for you in your life the same as He did for David. We make the choices to do what God wants us to do and God strengthens our failures. Let’s jump right in like the children and listen to what God is giving us to learn. Let’s get excited about God, after all He is excited about us. And right now at this moment in your life, you have the ability to make a difference. Now it is our turn to have the children catch up to us, to you. Let’s lead them on their spiritual journey and lets make it fun, exciting and a new adventure we can all experience. Go ahead and introduce them to the wine maker, the healer and the one who knew the heart of a humble lady at the well. He also knows you.
Rob